terça-feira, 13 de janeiro de 2015

The Season´s Port Wine: Burmester 40 years old "Tordiz" Tawny Port

For an exceptional season, an exceptional Port wine. The end of
December to the new year´s eve is always a very special season to the world of Port wine and
to confirm the importance given by consumers (I´am thinking about the
Portuguese market), just remember that the port wine producers have about 30%
of the annual sales (and billing), around Christmas and new Year.

My choice was
the Burmester 40 years "Tordiz" Tawny Port (bottled in 1991).

First, the definitions: a 40 years old Tawny Port is a red port wine, a blend, with the indication of age and
aged in wood. It is the result of a combination of wines, a blend of wines, the
so-called blending art. And a blend can include 10 to 15 different wines but in
the case of the 40 years old tawny, these wines are always older than 40 years, as
the label description clearly states "over 40 years old" (could also
include the designation "muito velho" or "very old").

For other tawny ports with
indication of age(10, 20, 30 years), the age indicated reflects the average age
of the wines included in the final blend, that reflects the profile of each
house (so, for example, the blend of a Tawny 10 years, may include a 8 years
old wine and a 14 years old wine ...). These wines can be labeled
"velho" or "old".

The idea of ageing a Tawny Port wine in
wood casks, is not to imbue the wine with the taste of wood, but rather to allow
oxygenation and oxidation.

The wines are bottled ready to drink,
the wine does not improve with the years in bottle.

The Tawny Port with indication of age bottle labels (or back labels) must
indicate the year or date of bottling.

Theses very old Tawny Port wines aged in
small casks, are the art of the blend expression, perfected over the years, in
this case by Burmester House. They are the quintessence of Tawny Port style (the
decades of evaporation originates a high concentrated wine) and are always
prepared in very small quantities.

We can consider the Burmester house(*)
as a recognized expert in colheita Port wines and old and very old tawnies, who
regularly brings to market.

Aroma/nose: The aroma is very intense,
rich and complex, and what the experts call the "old wine aroma",
with suggestions of honey and nuts (walnuts and almonds).

Taste/mouth: is unctuous, you can almost
chew it, very rich and full, raisin, honey and nuts flavoured.

With
a very long and intense finish.

This is a wine that can and should be enjoyed alone, without the harmonization
suggested for a wine of this style (nuts, the traditional Portuguese Christmas
fruit cake called "bolo-rei/king cake" or even chocolate).

After
opening, you can keep it easily up to 4
months (I hope that this is a purely theoretical question).